TPP Nikola Tesla Power Plant

TPP Nikola Tesla Power Plant is a 2,662 megawatt (MW) coal plant in Serbia which is owned and operated by Thermal Power Plant Nikola Tesla plc, a subsidiary of Serbia's state-run power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS). The EPS subsidiary operates the TPP Nikola Tesla Power Plant complex which comprises the 1,502 MW TPP Nikola Tesla A and the 1,160MW Nikola Tesla B power station.

(While the capacity of the plant has been referred to in some news reports as 3,300MW this is conflating the installed capacity of Thermal Power Plant Nikola Tesla plc, the EPS susbidiary, with TPP Nikola Tesla Power Plant, the power complex. Thermal Power Plant Nikola Tesla plc also owns and operates the 245 MW TPP Kolubara Power Plant and the 108 MW TPP Morava Power Plant. Even so, when the installed capacity of these plants is added to that of the TPP Nikola Tesla Power Plant, the combined output is 3,015 MW not 3,300.

The TPP Nikola Tesla Power Plant complex is located on the right bank of the river Sava, approximately 40 kilometers upstream from Belgrade, near the town of Obrenova. By far the largest coal plant in Serbia, the complex provides approximately 47 percent of the total capacity of the electric power system of Serbia. The complex and two of its plants are named in honor of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian electrical engineer and inventor.

The power plants use lignite coal mined from the Kolubara District basin as fuel. Coal is transported from the mines via rail transport, supplying a total of 37 million tons of coal a year. Coal for the plant is supplied by an EPS subsidiary, MB Kolubara plc, which operates four coal mines -- the Polje B mine, the Polje D mine, the Tamnava Istok mine and the Tamnava Zapad mine.

Units
The complex has two power stations:

TPP Nikola Tesla A
Six generation units with a combined capacity of 1502 MW. TPP Nikola Tesla A was first synchonised on March 27, 1970. It has two chimneys: one with a height of 220 metres and a second with a height of 150 metres.

TPP Nikola Tesla B
Located between the villages of Skela and Ushce. There are two generation units with a total capacity of 1160 MW. TPP Nikola Tesla B was first synchonised on March 11, 1983. Its chimney is 280 metres tall.

June 2011: New plants at Tesla announced
On June 30, 2011, Serbia's state-run power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) and Italy's Edison signed a preliminary deal to jointly develop two coal-fired generating units in Serbia generating a combined 750 megawatts. Edison pledged to build the units, which would be EPS' first new coal-fired capacity in 20 years. A feasibility study is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2012. After that the two utilities will set up a joint venture. They gave no estimation of the cost. The joint venture is for the Kolubara B power station.

Under the proposal, Edison offered EPS a 36.4 percent stake in the new company in which EPS had already invested 300 million euros ($424.8 million) back in 1988 until putting the construction on hold due to lack of funds. EPS issued a tender for the construction of 750 MW and 650 MW coal-fired power plants in 2009, part of its Nikola Tesla (TNT) coal-fired power complex with an existing capacity of 3,300 MW. It had earlier put the construction cost of both plants at around 1.6 billion euros ($2.3 billion). No bidder has expressed interest in building the 650 MW capacity and EPS earlier said it might announce a new tender for the unit.

Europe and coal

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 * Serbia and coal
 * United Kingdom and coal
 * World Bank and coal

Background information

 * European Environment Agency, European Pollutant Emission Register. (This has a list of power stations and their current emissions).